El Tasigre: Man I Wish this Deck was Fight Themed

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) BUG (Sultai) Combo Reanimator Zombie

MachoGau

Creature (32)

• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Corpse Harvester
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Dread Wanderer
• 1x Entrails Feaster
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Haunted Dead
• 1x Lotleth Troll
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Prized Amalgam
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Savra, Queen of the Golgari
• 1x Scourge of Nel Toth
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (38)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 6x Forest
• 1x High Market
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Island
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Survival of the Fittest

Instant (2)

• 1x Altar's Reap
• 1x Entomb

Commander (1)

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Far Wanderings
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Primal Growth
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Artifact (10)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Embalmer's Tools
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

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but...instead it's Self-Reanimator Combo which is like the fight mechanic in that it is not that. Please enjoy the primer anyway.

Overview: Why Tasigur?

I have wanted a dedicated reanimator deck for just about forever. Ever since I started playing in 2011's original Innistrad, I have wanted a deck that interacted heavily with the graveyard. In EDH, it's almost a crime to not take advantage of your graveyard. I contemplated Karador, Ghost Chieftain and actually built both Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Teneb, the Harvester. Regrettably the former ended up playing way too much like my Intet, the Dreamer top card manipulation deck and Teneb ended up not having a win-con.

If Im being perfectly honest, I have an alter of Tasigur, the Golden Fang done by Cereal Alters that I really like. I've always felt like Tasigur's activated ability was very demon-like and given Silumgar's distaste for demons, I wanted an alter of Tasigur as a Rakshasa from Tarkir. Cereal was great to work with and made sure I was happy with the alter all the way up to its completion. A link to his site can be found at the end of this primer.

I also like Tasigurs ability to be a mana sink should I have too much mana and not enough playables in hand unlike Meren of Clan Nel Toth who draws considerably more aggro from a table. Blue also give access to valuable counterspells to help protect your combo. I am not currently running any, but after testing I may find a place for Pact of Negation, Swan Song, Forbid, Trickbind, and/or Stifle. Spellskite becomes playable as well and our combo becomes instant speed with Alchemist's Refuge. There are also valuable zombies that Im not currently running which I have debated adding, including Diregraf Captain, Havengul Lich and the non-zombies but still great Gisa and Geralf.

Archetype: Self-Reanimator Combo

This is a dedicated combo deck. The ultimate goal of the deck is to keep the board controlled until all the combo pieces have been assembled. There are lots of tutors and the goal of the deck is to simultaneously wipe out a table.

This is definitely not a style of play that will fit everyone and it is up to the pilot to figure out what the power level of a table is. Uninterrupted this deck frequently wins the game on turn 7-9. The fastest it can win is on turn 4.

Strengths

As it turns out, creatures that reanimate on their own are very resilient. Immediately after a boardwipe, 3-4 creatures frequently are capable of pulling themselves out of the graveyard and back onto the battlefield. The high number of Grave Pact effects in the deck coupled with sac outlets control the board nicely.They also are great fuel for cards that require either sacrifice or discard as a cost such as Diabolic Intent and Survival of the Fittest.

The combo can be very sudden. I like my win-cons to surprise my opponents. The less time they have to interact with the combo, the more likely my combo will succeed. We'll discuss tutor targets and packages in a section below.

Weaknesses

Two words: Graveyard. Removal. Preferrably at instant speed. Any combination of Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void make it very, very difficult to combo off...in that it is actually impossible to unless they're removed.

A secondary weakness is that it's also very hard to take out opponents without a combo. The majority of the creature cards are weak and we're including no lords to buff our zombies so a win through combat damage is highly unlikely. Don't let that discourage you from attacking though. Most self-reanimators can't block anyhow and you might as well chip in some damage at a player in the lead. Every little bit counts!

Card Selection Criteria

Card Criteria

In order to be included in this deck, a card must:

• Function Well Individually:
  If a card can't stand on its own and requires other cards in order to be useful, I generally wont be happy to have drawn it. I originally had Gravespawn Sovereign in this deck. Super neat card. Not the right place for it. In a more zombie token oriented deck, I could see its inclusion, but my field consists typically of 3-5 creatures total so I would almost never be able to activate the ability. If I did add such an effect, it would be through either Geth, Lord of the Vault or Havengul Lich.

• Synergize:
  Ideally, none of the cards in this deck are entirely irrelevant to the rest of the deck. Utilizing Corpse Augur as a draw spell is a good example here. There are plenty of other great black draw spells. Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving and the big bad Necropotence are all great choices in black, and especially in a black combo deck. However, Necropotence does this great thing where it exiles cards that I discard, a huge problem for recurring Haunted Dead or getting any use out of Survival of the Fittest or Archfiend of Ifnir. Similarly, Yawgmoth's Will, a great card in almost any other black deck, does not enable a win on the turn it's cast because of the exile effect.

• Contribute to the Deck Plan:
  A card needs to advance my board position in order to be included. I dont need hyper-optimization, but I do need my deck to consistently push for my win condition.

• Be Fun:
  This is 100% the most important requirement. As an example, Entrails Feaster is clearly not the best graveyard control card, and not even the best graveyard control zombie which would probably be either Cemetery Reaper or Withered Wretch or even Chainer, Dementia Master and Geth, Lord of the Vault but it is fun. It's fits the mausoleum/crypt flavor that I'm going for and it provides a passable function as a 1-drop that grows as my opponent's graveyard grows, or an early creature to sacrifice. At the end of the day, it's EDH, play the cards that make you happy.
  

The Luchadors!: They may be down, but they're not out!

Jake: "Now it's time to introduce our Luchadors, Paul!"
Paul: "That it is Jake! And we've got a great line-up for you folks watching at home...but Paul, why do our Luchadors smell so...interesting? Is it some kind of special workout regimen?"
Jake: "Well that's a great question Paul. It's actually because they're dead."
Paul: "..."
Jake: "..."

• Gravecrawler


• Nether Traitor


• Reassembling Skeleton


• Bloodsoaked Champion


• Dread Wanderer


• Scourge of Nel Toth


• Prized Amalgam


• Haunted Dead

How to Tutor/Tutor Packages

This section will walk you through which cards to tutor for given any given situation. Please make sure to keep in mind the meta youre playing with. Tutors grant you the luxury of tailoring your gameplay to your playgroup. If someones playing a hella janky deck, its okay to not combo them out on turn 4. While Im sure all of us build are decks with the express purpose of winning (or at least having a game plan), winning is not the most important part of EDH:

• Sidisi, Undead Vizier is the best tutor in this deck. She is a zombie, can come in off of Birthing Pod, another great tutor and fetch you the artifact youll need, likely Phyrexian Altar. Even if theres no self-reanimating creature out, sacrificing her with her own exploit trigger is well worth it. The deck has no problems getting the requisite creatures for the combo but it does need some help getting those artifacts.
  

• Survival of the Fittest: This card was originally in my Intet, the Dreamer deck but my goodness, it puts in so much more work here. Its an expensive card, and well cover budget options later, but this is the first thing I would upgrade if youve built a budget version of this deck. One green mana to simultaneously throw potentially a self-reanimating card to the grave for a creature of your choice is AMAZING. For this deck, survival is basically a green repeatable Entomb
  

• Birthing Pod is pretty self-explanatory. If youre lacking an edict effect sac a 6-drop for Butcher of Malakir. Need a Blood Artist effect? Sac a 1, 2, or 3, drop for Zulaport Cutthroat, Plague Belcher, Vengeful Dead or Blood Artist himself.
  

• Buried Alive: Now this is a fun one. Gravecrawler, Prized Amalgam, and Haunted Dead are a fun package. Corpse Connoisseur and Scourge of Nel Toth also enjoy the graveyard.
  

• Jarad's Orders is also a fun tutor, throwing a self-reanimator into the grave while picking up a missing combo piece for our hand is excellent.
  

Card Advantage

Zambinos have some pretty strong tribal draw:

• Corpse Augur: This card is just phenomenal. Considering how the goal of the deck is to throw creatures into our graveyard, the augur ends up drawing us 5-6 cards on a regular basis.
  

• Graveborn Muse: A phyrexian arena that scales with the number of Zombies on the field? Yes please. With a plethora of sac outlets in the deck and zombies that bring themselves out of the graveyard, its very easy to decide how many cards and how much life you want to lose. Additional cards at every upkeep is a great deal.
  

• Altar's Reap: In the underdog corner we have Altars Reap. Its a less color intensive, non-life loss, instant speed Sign in Blood. It additionally triggers any on-death effects and we can just bring the sacrificed creature back later if need be.
  

• Skullclamp: I dont think Ihave to explain why Skullclamp is great with 1 toughness creatures that haul themselves back out of the graveyard.
  

The Combos

• Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + any Blood Artist or Vengeful Dead effect: Lethal to a table. Sac Gravecrawler for a black mana to recast it from the grave an infinite number of times. Pretty simple. Note that it does require having another zombie on the battlefield. It is also notable that either an Embalmer's Tools or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed lets us use Reassembling Skeleton or Bloodsoaked Champion in place of Gravecrawler.
  
  
  
• Grave Titan + Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar is infinite zombie tokens at instant speed. Simply sacrifice Grave Titan and one of the zombies it brings in and with the 4 mana that generates from the altar, recur Grave Titan with the Deathmantle.
  
  

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Phyrexian Altar + Ashnod's Altar + Dread Wanderer:The emergency backup combo in case our other Gravecrawlers get exiled.
  

Notable Exclusions

Exclusions:

• Triskelion: There is actually no combo I like less than Mikaeus-Triskelion. I personally don't find it very interesting and outside of combo-ing with Mikaeus, Triskelion really doesnt do much.
  

Budget Time!

The Core

These are cards that probably should stay if you'd like to keep the idea of the deck together in your version.

• Phyrexian Altar and Gravecrawler really are the two cards that must stay in the deck. The amount of Blood Artist and other gravecrawler creatures you want to run is up to you.




• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed cannot be replaced in this deck. Normally I would suggest a Cauldron of Souls but that unfortunately just kills most of our self-reanimators on their second entry.

On a Budget?

If youre not made of money or you dont want to spend your hard earned cashes on cardboard (totally understandable), these are some suggestions for cheaper cards that have similar effects to those already mentioned.

• Damnation can be replaced with Deadly Tempest or Crux of Fate rather easily.


• Necormancers Stockpile can very poorly replace Survival of the Fittest. Alternatively, Fauna Shaman is a more fragile, less abusable version of the card.

Knowing Your Meta

This is always, always, always going to be important. If your meta runs lots of grave-hate there are going to be adjustments youll need to make.

The Meta I Play With

Not a comprehensive list as not all of our decks are loaded up onto tapped out but this should be an adequate sample of what my meta is like. More decklists are still on their way.

Olivia Voldaren - EDH
Sygg, River Guide - EDH
Jenara, Asura of War - EDH
My pet cards and Ephara cuz Brago is mean
Merieke Ri Berit EDH
Borborygmos EDH

If you have suggestions, I would definitely recommend reading the card criteria section of this primer first. Otherwise, I'd love to hear any stories, comments or ratings of the deck and about cards that have worked well for you in your play history.

If you're looking to build Tasigur, the Golden Fang or a reanimator deck in general, I hope you found this primer helpful! There are a great many reanimator options out there and definitely no one right way to build the deck. Im constantly playtesting with my friends, with my LGS, and swapping cards in and out. As with all of my decks, Ill be keeping the deck up to date as I test, make more revisions, and as new cards come out.

Thanks for checking it out!

Credits

Cereal Alters link: a traditional artist and illustrator who has a passion for altering Magic cards.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.32
Tokens	Spirit 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B